I've heard they used to say that the music played by CCM would have been
completely understood only in the year 2000.
I believe, instead, that you could understand the Germs completely only if
you lived that period of transition from the late 70's to the 80's and that
their music was like the "sunset" or much properly the "Decline"
of the punk-rock civilisation, not yet the birth of hardcore...
I know that many people will be pissed off with me because of what I wrote
and that this great band has many uncompromising fans also among the guys
of my age and even younger.
I believe that the first thing those people would do, is to show me the icon
of Darby Crash, the one I posted here, at the side...
I usually don't like icons, but sure this picture has a strong impact: he acted like a "rockstar", but you had the chance to know him only if you first made a step forward into the indipendent punk scene and if you looked at him on stage you would have seen a helpless, hurt, unconscious "primadonna" much different from the traditional figure of the "demigod" rock singer...
The other members of the group result now quite hidden under the big image of Darby, I believe... Maybe it was so cool that the guitarist Pat Smear was a great fan of The Queen and then became part of this great revolutionary band or maybe Lorna was the first female bass player in a indipendent band, that everyone had just begun to play his instruments, but unluckily we are so used to similar figures (that maybe just copied off these original models) that we can't look to the genuine ones as innovators anymore...
Musical Review
I prefer, as usual, to judge from the music, rather than from the appearence
and about this point I have the bigger doubts. Their album GI is considered,
rightly, a masterpiece of punkrock and a precursor of hardcore. It contains
many songs written in a diverse form, anyway, and in my opinion, it is organized
very similar to traditional hard-rock albums, with a bands sound that never
changes, but varies the pace in the different tracks. The general feeling
transmitted by the music doesn't vary much especially thanks to Darby's drawling
[it. strascicata] voice (much different from the volatile tones of hardcore
singers :-) and to the players work that build a great amalgamation, but that
rarely indulge in solos or individual spotlights.
My favorite songs are quite different from each other: one is What we do
is secret that is in the structure of a thrasher (here I wonder if
they evolved their on kind of thrasher or just wanted to use another band
typical expression form) and the equally famous Manimal which has a great
bass&guitar intro riff. While the former could fit in "my definition
of hardcore", the latter has a typical hardrock, '77 punk feeling and
format. The link with blues/rock is especially strong in the ending, long
track Annihilation Man. I believe the Germs inherited that sanguine
feeling of many 60's and 70's rock bands and that this is the major gift
that they could provide to the newborn hardcore style: the noise and protest
sound must always relate to your soul and feeling, or this kind of music would
became hollow and boring as it has become in many nowadays HC bands!
I'm sure that the Germs brought in great innovations, but I believe that now we can't easily see them as they seem banal because they have been assumed as a standard by many following punk, grunge, indipendent bands that haunted our radios and screens for years... For this reason, I believe that only who was born before they appeared on stage can appreciate the Germs completely and that's why I need the help for this page of those who lived the California scene more than ever, because only those who witnessed transgression without its "commercial counterpart" can recollect what was so innovative and sweeping in their music!
PS: I haven't found much information about the Germs online, so I'd be glad also to write something about their history and about the life of its band members Darby, Pat and Lorna...